Interviewee Name: Phyllis Yaffe, Chair
Company Name: Ryerson University
Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.
Phyllis Yaffe: I've spent my career doing things in the cultural industry in Canada. I became the CEO of Alliance Atlantis in 2005, and we sold the company at the end of 2007. I officially retired, but my husband says I’m failing at that. I now spend a lot of my time on corporate boards, as well as chairing the board of Ryerson University, so I have many interests that I spend my time on now.
Avil Beckford: How do you integrate your personal and professional life?
Phyllis Yaffe: Like everybody else, when my child was young it was hard and I had to struggle with it. As she got older life got easier and of course now it's not an issue because she's a grown-up. I have to be very organized, and I have to think about plans. I organize my life around my family and my world and it isn't always straightforward. But I’m organized.
Avil Beckford: What are five life lessons that you have learned so far?
Phyllis Yaffe:
- Be open-minded.
- Make good friends whose values are your values and work with them.
I think if you’re a good person life will be good.
Avil Beckford: When you have some down time, how do you spend it?
Phyllis Yaffe: I enjoy cooking. I love to entertain friends at home, that’s a fun thing to do. I like to invite them over and cook with them, and make the cooking the entertainment part. I go to movies a lot. I read when I can, I’ve always been a reader and I like to read fiction. It's a whole world of great stories. We like to socialize, we like to have friends over a lot.
Avil Beckford: What process do you use to generate great ideas?
Phyllis Yaffe: I don’t know where my ideas come from and whether they are great or bad. They just come out of the blue, and I don’t know if that means they are just mulling around in your head for while and they just surface. But I would say that I have no idea where my ideas come from, but it seems they just come from out of nowhere. An idea would come out and just pop out of mouth and I have no idea where it came from.
Avil Beckford: How do you define success?
Phyllis Yaffe: The hardest thing to be in this world is happy. If you say that you are happy then I would say that you’re successful. And some people define that differently. It’s a title, an office in some fancy building for some people, and for others it is creating the things they want to create, working with the people they want to work with. For some people it’s money, and for others it's the freedom to have time. Success for me is doing the things that I want to do, and having the time to do them.
Avil Beckford: In your opinion what’s the formula for success?
Phyllis Yaffe: The way I know that I am happy at what I’ve done is if I'm doing the things that I wanted to do and enjoying them, that's definitely success.
Avil Beckford: What are the steps you took to succeed in your field?
Phyllis Yaffe: For sure taking opportunities when they came along, but the other thing is making sure that you have smart people around you. I mean that by saying not to be intimidated by having people who are better at what they do than what you do, than how you perform your job. I always thought that if I had the very smartest people around me how could I fail. I’d say that's true. There are many people who don't like smart people around them because they like to be the smartest in the room. But I always liked to be the person who had the smart people around her.
Avil Beckford: What advice do you have for someone just starting out in your field?
Phyllis Yaffe: Well I know that it's harder now than when I was young to find the right career path so I guess I would say to think that one through. Think about what you like doing, make sure it's something that you enjoy, understand that enjoying it, being happy with your choices is way more important than what makes more money, and what's the most prestigious. If you’re a cab driver and that gives you the most enjoyment in life, then that’s your career path. Don’t let the world’s view of what success is define yours, you have to define it for yourself.
Avil Beckford: If trusted friends could introduce you to five people that you’ve always wanted to meet, who would you choose? And what would you say to them?
Phyllis Yaffe: I thought about this and I didn’t have great names. When my daughter applied for school she came up with great names. I think all mine would be writers. I’m a big reader of fiction, and I’d love to meet the writers of some of the novels that I’ve loved. I’d like to meet Shirley Hazzard who wrote The Great Fire. I’d like to meet Ann Patchett. Ian McEwan, I’d like to meet him and talk about his writing. I’d just like to meet writers and find out what’s in their heads, put it all together and see what more I can learn from them. And I’d also like to meet both Michelle and Barack Obama. They are very interesting people and I’d like to understand why a politician chooses to be a politician, especially in these days.
Avil Beckford: Which one book had a profound impact on your life? What was it about this book that impacted you so deeply?
Phyllis Yaffe: In Grade 5 my classroom teacher gave me Anne of Green Gables. I know that that sounds like a terrible cliché but it’s true. She gave it to me in hardcover and I still have it. I think it’s the only book I have from so long ago and I never had a hardcover book before that, that was mine, all mine. We had books in the house but children’s books weren’t a big deal. And certainly spending money on them seemed like a great luxury. I remember getting it and how thrilled I was to have it. I read it, I loved it, I don’t think it’s been a huge influence on me as a book, but just getting a hardcover book that was mine to hold was a really important thing for me.
Avil Beckford: If you were stranded on a deserted island, what are five books that you would like to have with you and why? Summarize the book in two sentences.
Phyllis Yaffe: I think I would say all the fiction I mentioned. I would go back and read lots of Doris Lessing. I’d read lots of Ian McEwan, some of Margaret Atwood but not very much – just her older books. I would read as much fictions as I could possibly find.
Avil Beckford: What one music CD and movie would you like to have with you (on the deserted island) and why?
Phyllis Yaffe: I think I’d watch Annie Hall forever. I thought it was hysterically funny and I could watch that. The old Joni Mitchell albums would be my favourite.
If you cannot view the YouTube Annie Hall movie trailer, please click here.
If you cannot view the Joni Mitchell YouTube video please click here.
Avil Beckford: What excites you about life?
Phyllis Yaffe: I thing there is to much to learn, so many places the go. I like meeting people. I'm open to the world, I’m in a strange place where I have lots of years left to do many things and have many choices to make. I'm interested in where the next choice will take me.
Avil Beckford: How do you nurture your soul?
Phyllis Yaffe: it's easy to say all the things I've already said, reading and friends and all that kind of stuff. But I would say that I’m not good at that, I fail at it.
Avil Beckford: If you had a personal genie and she gave you one wish, what would you wish for?
Phyllis Yaffe: Health!
Avil Beckford: Complete the following, I am happy when…..
Phyllis Yaffe: The people I love are around me.